10 days of Luke

Ten days of:

1. Adjusting
Allie and Estefan have been great helpers and Mark has only been a little jealous of the baby.

2. Crying
Luke doesn't enjoy getting his diaper changed, being circumcised or taking medicine.

3. Sleeping
Luke is an awesome sleeper. He goes 3-4 hours at night in between feedings.
Last night he even slept from 9pm-4am!!! That is seven hours of sleep for mommy!
Can I get a woot, woot?!

4. Loving
The big kids have to be loving on Luke all the time.

5. Smiling
Life is good. :)

1-17-11

Sunday morning the 16th, I woke up feeling weird.
I thought to myself "could today be THE day??!"
I felt some squeezing in my stomach.. a contraction, maybe?
"NO, Lauren," I thought, "do NOT get your hopes up." So I passed the pain off for a little while.

But these little cramps kept coming. I took a shower, washed my hair, tried to get pretty for church... but I knew I wouldn't be going. I told Dustin, "Today is the day." He could tell I was serious and told me to stay home from church and rest. I relaxed and tried to power through the little contractions I was having. When Dustin and the kids arrived home from church Dustin put on his traditional birthing attire (his black Chris LeDoux shirt and packed his bag... thank goodness I threw stuff together the day before.) At around 8pm I couldn't handle the contractions any more and we headed for Las Vegas.

Dustin and Allie ---- Dustin and Mark

The ride in went pretty quick. I was praying the whole time we'd make it to the hospital so my dad (who is firefighter and works the freeway) and his crew wouldn't have to deliver my baby on the side of the road!) We made it to the hospital and I was still pregnant. The main entrance was closed, so we headed for the ER. Whoa. The ER, at night, in Las Vegas is an interesting place to be. I won't go into detail.. but I'm sure you can imagine the fun arrangement of people assembled there. After a few minutes a nurse came down and wheeled me to labor and delivery.

Once in my room, the nice nurse came in to "check me".. (I still flinch at that phrase!) and I knew, I just knew I would be dilated to at least a six, maybe even a seven! But.... no... a two. A flippin' two. My doctor said since I was two weeks early that she wanted me to progress on my own for as long as possible. Then she would start me on the Pitocin. So she had me walk around the hospital for an hour! AN HOUR! I hadn't exercised that much in a long time. But we did it. Dustin and I walked and walked and walked, like little pioneer children. We did ladders up and down the hallway, talked, memorized the L&D floor plan, and walked some more. After the hour the nurse "checked me" again and I was at a 3 1/2. Nice but not enough.. things progressed slowly for a while and then picked up quickly. I got my epidural from a nice Polish man that I couldn't understand and got a little sleep. Around 3:30am things got more and more intense.

Blah, blah, blah more contractions and some pushing later... then at 6:50am Luke was here!

Dustin and Luke

When Luke came out he was making a weird grunting sound, the nurses were a little nervous about his breathing, but he quickly came around and everything was fine! The labor and delivery couldn't have gone any better than it did. We were very blessed to not have any complications or problems.

My mom and dad brought the big kids over later that afternoon.
Allie was immediately all smiles! She had been waiting and waiting for her baby brother to get here and now he finally was!

Mark was glad to see me. He climbed up on the bed with me and said,
"Your's baby come out! Now you hold you me!!"

Luke's middle name is Stanley, after my awesome dad, Papa Stan.

Grandma Nana is pretty excited to have another grandbaby to love!

I'm so blessed to be the mother of another beautiful child.
I'm so grateful to have such an amazing husband.
And I'm so happy to NOT be pregnant any more!!!

Luke

Luke Stanley Nelson
Born: January 17, 2011 6:50 AM
Weight: 8lbs 8oz
Length: 20 inches

More photos and stories to come!
Right now I'm too busy enjoying my new baby. ;)

Happy Birthday Allie!

What? You say it WAS your birthday...??
Almost a month ago?

Allie turned 5!
Yes, 5 years old on December 26th.

We celebrated her big day with a movie date to see Tangled! Super duper cute movie!!
Then our annual dinner at the "Ice Cream Store."

I made her a cake with her favorite thing ever, Stawberries!

People always say how terrible it must be to have a birthday right after Christmas. Well, Allie loves it! She put all her birthday presents under the Christmas tree and gets spoiled every year! I loved watching her face light up with excitement when she opened each present.

I'm so grateful to call her my daughter!

Happy Birthday Sunshine!
Love you lots!!!

Christmas Day 2010

I've been putting this post off, because I'm so sad Christmas is over! Every year we can't wait til it gets here, then every year its over before we know it. Actually we are still hanging on to what little Christmas we can... our lights are still up on our house.. but I guess we are redneck enough that people don't question that. :P

Christmas morning, Dustin and I were wide awake before the kids. We tried to lay in bed and be patient til they woke up but we couldn't take it any longer! At 6:30AM we woke Allie and Mark up and told them Santa had come!!! Allie popped right out of bed, but Mark took a little encouragement. Oh but they were wide awake when they walked through the living room and saw their little FOUR WHEELERS!!!

Of course, their grandparents spoiled them too.
They got lots of fun toys and lots of yummy candy!

This may be my favorite picture of all time!

Mark looooved the "boy four-wheeler".. but he hated his helmet. The first chance he got he switched it for his new cowboy hat. He also thought the four wheeler seat made a good little bed for a post-Christmas present nap.

Allie was dying to take her four wheeler out for a spin around the farm. So Dustin, Uncle Corey and Uncle Brian used whatever Santa magic they had left and squeezed the four wheelers out the front door!

That afternoon Estefan came over for the remainder of the Christmas break! He was just as pumped for the new toys as the other kids!! So the rest of the day was spent playin' in the mud!!

Dustin and the big kids, lovin' life!

I think Dustin, thinks the four wheelers are pretty fun too! ;)

We had a wonderfully muddy Christmas day!!

and a Happy New Year!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Almost every day, the week leading up to Christmas, Allie would say,
"This is going to be the best Christmas ever!"

And she was right.. it was certainly different than a lot of our past Christmases.
But it was the best!

Christmas Eve we spent at our house with the Greig's and the other Greig's (Brian's brother and family). We had a yummy feast, frosted Christmas cookies and opened a couple presents.

When the party was over, we read our Christmas stories, opened our Christmas Eve presents and our 12 Days presents and went to bed so Santa Claus could come...

and boy did he come!!!

To be continued...